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Quebec submits $400 million claim for Lac-Mégantic train disaster

The Quebec government has submitted a claim against the rail company behind last year’s deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, saying the estimated cost of the cleanup and reconstruction will be more than $400 million.

MONTREAL—The Quebec government has submitted a claim against the rail company behind last year’s deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, saying the estimated total costs of the cleanup and reconstruction will be more than $400 million.

The provincial government said it has already spent $126 million nearly one year after the July 6 derailment and explosions that killed 47 people and wiped out a large part of the city’s downtown. It expects to spend at least another $283 million to complete the work, which includes clearing the wrecked buildings and decontaminating the soil, which was soaked with millions of litres of combustible crude oil.

The claim against the carrier, Montreal, Maine and Atlantic railway, was filed in Quebec Superior Court, which is handling the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. MM&A was sold earlier this year to an American firm that intends to renovate the tracks before resuming shipments of crude oil and other materials and goods through the devastated town.

After the July 6, 2013 train derailment, it was revealed that MM&A had an insurance policy that would cover damages of only up to $25 million. A number of other companies — such as Irving Oil, which was to refine the oil being carried on the train, as well as the firms that produced the crude oil and that leased the rail cars — are also being sued in order to recoup enough money to cover the expenses and compensation costs incurred by the disaster.

Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée said in a statement Monday that any successful claims against the rail company should benefit victims and their families. She added that if the judge ruling over the bankruptcy case decides that only the $25 million insurance policy should be made available to claimants, the government will ensure that the money goes to the victims.

Court documents made public last week to Montreal’s The Gazette and the Journal de Montréal revealed that the train’s engineer, Thomas Harding, had parked the train in the nearby town of Nantes, Que., the night of the accident but applied only seven handbrakes — less than the nine the company security policies called for, or the 15 that an independent investigator later suggested should have been applied.

An engine fire a few hours before the Lac-Mégantic derailment led to the train’s locomotives being powered down and the subsequent loss of power to the train’s air brakes.

Shortly after midnight on July 6, the driverless train began rolling down a sharp, 12-kilometre decline and derailed just as it reached the city’s downtown core.

About 30 of the 47 victims were inside a popular local bar while most of the others were located inside their homes.

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